Humanities Internship Spotlight
Sam Debenham | Cole Levy | Max Prudden |
Chase Davidson | Dallin Stuart
Humanities students gain valuable, career-ready skills through their coursework and co-curricular programs. Internships offer an essential opportunity to apply these skills in real-world settings, explore potential career paths, and gain professional experience. For many students, completing an internship is a key step in successfully transitioning from college to the workplace.
My internship with KUAA has been a profound learning experience about the wonderful world of radio! Before working with KUAA, I was curious about how a public radio station can remain operable without commercials or other revenue streams. I assumed that some federal funding existed for local radio programming, but I was mistaken. Stations like KUAA run entirely off listener donations and fundraising events in the form of "Radiothons." The work I've been doing has been very similar to the work that takes place at any non-profit organization, including tabling, event promotion, and community outreach.
Tabling involves setting up a table with merchandise at concert venues, festivals, and other large, often music-related gatherings. There are also usually flyers and pamphlets with information about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and other ways to connect and partner with the station. Merchandise sales also make up a small portion of the station's overall income. I’ve learned through this internship how a station like KUAA is grounded in community action, rather than maximizing profit.
Stations like KUAA also gain traction by hosting events at local businesses and community spaces. Event promotion entails a number of different activities, including flyer distribution at local hotspots, speaking about upcoming events on the air, and reaching out directly to community members to garner event interest through word-of-mouth. We frequently partner with local businesses at these events to raise money for the station and promote interest in these businesses and other partner organizations. This has been one of the most gratifying aspects of the position; knowing that my efforts contribute to the local economy and community.
I was drawn to this internship because it is snowboard-related and it allows me to
work on film projects. I am helping run and grow their social accounts by finding
and posting new content. While creating and captioning posts, I ensure that accreditations
are correct. One project that 
was especially meaningful to me was being able to post my friend's project on YouTube.
Almost 90 percent of my job is putting together proposals and giving them to my boss
on a weekly basis. This internship helped me practice better time management, because
I had to balance school, work, internship and sports. I’m also overseeing analytics
and each week depending on the number of videos we upload, I’ll report to my boss
with my stats. I would say to other students that an internship is a great way to
branch out of school, and into a work environment.
What drew me to my internship is that when I interviewed, they spoke a lot about their post graduate opportunities. I started my internship in May and since then I’ve been given a lot of projects to work on. A big project I helped with was helping completely re-organize the pharmacies, medication, and layout, by making it easier to navigate. This was also a great experience because it let me work with many different people across the company and helped me understand how all the different departments work together.
One of the other major parts of my internship is creating flyers and posters for different work events. I’ve never been great at Photoshop but through doing it so often, I’ve improved my skills, opening opportunities throughout the company.
Chase Davidson
Major(s): Communication, Psychology
Internship: The College of Humanities
Role: Social Media Intern
I’ve had the opportunity to intern as the University of Utah College of Humanities’ Student Social Media Specialist. This role has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life and is preparing me for my future goals of advertising, branding, and possibly continuing social media management. I’ve enjoyed every aspect of this internship from coming up with content ideas, using technical skills like photo and video editing, collaborating with students and departments, and curating a brand image in every detail.
One aspect of my role is to engage our student body by creating relatable and informative content. This has been my favorite challenge to take on as I am able to bring my personality into the content. Being able to explore my creativity and build a portfolio of work that I can apply in future positions has been an invaluable experience. Getting on-the-job practical skills and experience has also helped me to understand more about my desired field.
While adding elements of humor is appropriate at times, I have also gotten valuable practice at professional communication. It is essential to be intentional with the tone of a message in my job so that I am able to appeal to not just our students, but our faculty, alumni, and donors to engage each audience. Being able to critically analyze the messages created for social media and our different audiences helps deepen my understanding of strategic communication while applying the knowledge I have learned in my classes. Turning my technical knowledge into practiced skills has made me feel more prepared for a future career.
Dallin Stuart
Major(s): Communication
Internship: Mountain America Credit Union
Role: Event Coordinator
I’ve had the opportunity to intern as the University of Utah College of Humanities’ Student Social Media Specialist. This role has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life and is preparing me for my future goals of advertising, branding, and possibly continuing social media management. I’ve enjoyed every aspect of this internship from coming up with content ideas, using technical skills like photo and video editing, collaborating with students and departments, and curating a brand image in every detail.
One aspect of my role is to engage our student body by creating relatable and informative content. This has been my favorite challenge to take on as I am able to bring my personality into the content. Being able to explore my creativity and build a portfolio of work that I can apply in future positions has been an invaluable experience. Getting on-the-job practical skills and experience has also helped me to understand more about my desired field.
While adding elements of humor is appropriate at times, I have also gotten valuable practice at professional communication. It is essential to be intentional with the tone of a message in my job so that I am able to appeal to not just our students, but our faculty, alumni, and donors to engage each audience. Being able to critically analyze the messages created for social media and our different audiences helps deepen my understanding of strategic communication while applying the knowledge I have learned in my classes. Turning my technical knowledge into practiced skills has made me feel more prepared for a future career.
